How a Gift Can Change Lives

Thanks to donors stepping up and going the extra mile, our Twitter campaign has generated five gifts for deprived, excluded and vulnerable children in Africa. For every 200 followers we receive through July 27, a gift from our Gifts of Love and Hope catalog will be sent to fulfill needs in The Gambia, Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Gifts such as chickens, goats and seeds provide a children and families food and, very possibly, a way to make money. One such example is in Uganda where ChildFund helped Milly, a single mother, start a piggery business.

When her husband died in 2003, she was unemployed and left with eight children to raise. A year after her husband’s death, a meeting was held in her Ugandan village to tell residents that ChildFund International was looking for people to train in farming. ChildFund Uganda staff visited the village soon after the meeting to register people in the program.

“We were immediately enrolled for a one-week course on gardening and farming,” Milly said. “Before the training, I used to rear a few pigs at home. I would tied them on a rope and take them to the garden to feed. Now I have given them shelter because I am equipped with knowledge on how to look after them in the right way.”

At the end of the training, ChildFund gave Milly a pair of piglets – male and female – to help her start a piggery business. Today she is an accomplished community piggery farmer, and she has started other income-generating activities such as poultry and banana farming. And because of this business, she is able to afford to send her children to school, providing them an education they otherwise would not have had. Her children also participate in the family business.

What seems likes a small gift can transform a life. As our Twitter followers grow, so will these stories. And we will share them with you as they come in. So to the already 1,000-plus followers, we thank you.